The Wild West as a romanticised individualism
The Wild West is perceived as a time of expansion and individualism. A time of great new opportunity and autonomy. The realisation of absolute liberty was upon the people. While this is greatly exaggerated it presents an ideal of abandoning society for a fresh start. A hopeful manifestation of the isolated self. Yet in its fantastical articulation there is an aspiring vision to be the lone wolf. To be the sophisticated talented John Wick character. A modern cowboy taking the law into his own hands. The measure of such an individual is his utmost independence. It it that self promoting and individualism that is valuable. It is also the road to the ultimate existential self.
Existentialism rose following the romantic era. It posited the individual’s being before belonging. One’s clean slate of existence on the same foundation as everyone else. The philosophical school sought answers to man’s inner demons. The subjective perspective of the world lay in the personal relation to the diabolical reality. A leap of faith into the darkness of the world. Weaned of the yoke of ancestral traditions, he was free to figure new solutions to age old issues. An inwardness harnessing self development and reflective thinking. In the modern narrative, man was alone in his world to churn out a new path. His existence was for him to sort out. A destiny overcoming the fate of the fatal gods. While there were different streams and avenues in existential thought following specific events namely WWII, it is reasonable to assume the trajectory only evolved in the later thinkers. Producing self generated meaning was a prose of the war-torn self amidst the graving despair of perpetuated death.
Yet, in all this self made propositions the world never fully accepted such an autonomous individual. Media’s promotion unsuccessfully exaggerates a phenomenon to conceive of many lone wolves or a network of them. Such a group of masculine folk are miniscule. Strong willed, introverted and confident is a worthy mix of empowered lads with committed aspirations. Pioneers and transmitters in their own way. In a way that deviates from the norm. Those disillusioned with societal progress and seeking a new avenue. The Oregon trail was not all too primitive. Many were inspired by the manifest destiny ideology. It was a heteronomous concentration not an individualised motto. The Wild West was contrived as a lawless wonder. Someone needed to stand up. The cowboy is the unofficial dramatic hero to cease the corruption. He is a man alone who emerges to restore order. This was far from the truth. Texans may act in cowboy-is mannerisms with their lackadaisical firearm laws but such a commercialised folk hero was simply folklore.
If the Wild West was not what it was mead out to be by Hollywood directors it more or less decried what it became. If only there were more solo rangers traversing the chaotic bountiful land in the midwest. Cinematic heroes are fictional projections. At times, what ifs and what we wished existed. The hero’s journey is filled through cinema as a carrying theme. Easily identifiable with the main character and rooting for his victory. The phrase fiction is more real than real though does denote a true historical reality in relation to cowboys, it may represent the inner feelings of many people. People who detest being placed in a box. Having options limited to what is surrounding their environment. A fantasy to roam the endless plains and fight for honour but wish to never hold a loaded weapon. It is an ideal archetype. One men want to be and women want to be be with. It is an aspiration to have the arrogance to dismiss societal values. Yet its ironic pause is its falsity. A cinematic lie for day dreamers. Society will never permit such lawless independence. It is not only the constitution that is to be heeded but so to the social order. The theoretical escape is marred by the practical conformity.
Historical truth is humorous in that aspect. Altering the past for one’s own fantasy. A golden era of revisionist blasphemy. A dream for the elevated heart. The pinnacle of the ecstatic prayer. To break free of the shackles of society and still maintain dignity. Only a few succeed in overcoming society’s suppression. Living every man and women’s dream. Wealthy and happy. A society looking for an escape from the social order is at its pinnacle. With sufficient wealth, the popularity contest is irrelevant. Money talks and is seductive in its ability to boost one’s fortune tremendously. As long as wealth is pouring in, actions are inconsequential. The justice system is measured by monetary worth. Even a guilty convict with capable funds can evade punishment. A distorted system. Cinema paints a picture that anyone can be an outlaw but this causes its own damage as it requires immense conviction. Nothing as easy nor simple as the movies make it out to be. Bond or Jones though are aspiring archetypes run into a deep heap of trouble. Yes they have intense adventures, save the world and get the girl but it’s an arduous journey. Without proper preparation the voyage is a titanic.
Living in uncivilised territory is possible but not recommended if necessary skills haven’t been acquired. A trained soldier may possess these skills and implement this program but this need not be the joy of the average individual’s fantasy. People wish to live comfortably. To fulfil the homeostasis quota. That requires living in an advanced civilised society. Even if films were Wild West proofed, those towns were wretched and the cowboy always had a target on his head. It was not a soothing life. Conforming to the technological evolution of society demands conformity in many aspects. Especially considering social life and practice. As long as one lives in a civilised community in the urban sector, he is bound to the communal front. Rural areas are the notable isolators but even then there is a local Walmart everyone attends. With technology, everyone is in everyone else’s world and there is no stopping it. We are constantly moving and passing through endless encounters. Restrictions may be self-imposed on the magnitude of external involvement but governed in its totality will unify. Civilisation has brought the world to our living rooms and we cannot help but internalise the gossip.
Hasidim, monks and other ascetic mystics found their isolation away from society. In this regard they deterred from any engagement for their own. The exception to the rule. The impoverished who devoted themselves entirely to themselves. To their own self growth. They are the epitome of existentialist thought. Their countless hours meditating aligning their wills broadens their minds. They are so in touch with their bodies and their inner dimensions. Seeping into the spiritual side is the private sector of human existence. An area for the self to humble itself by internally focusing. A mode of self actualisation through introspection. For them this is not a morning routine but a lifestyle. They have eroded the burden of materialism by rejecting any of its benefit for ridding its dangerous harms. The plainness is the bedrock of human condition. At the basic of levels they are individuals focusing on themselves in the world. The ignorance to pleasure is extreme but it is to this degree to ensure the purest of independence. They also reach a degree of psychosis. Whereby, cut off from reality either they commit themselves to a craft in a box of their own or fed up with human idealism they wish to leave. A respected but also neglected fate.
Anarchy is not the goal of every social pervert. Even those who wish to transcend the social order need to play the game in order to reach the apex of critical displeasure. The connective trajectory facilitates an upwards swing in ensuring autonomy by wealth escalation. The disparity endows a shadow of mere doubtful contusions. Man is only free once he attains sufficient funds to be financially independent. Once he has reached this peak he can act swiftly. Prior to that achievement there is a slow inability to isolate competently. Man’s unstable confrontational makeup pins him in the social conformity. Recognition motions a tainted respect for self acceptance. Self isolation leads to social alienation. A misrepresented individual is perceived as a cancer to society. A diseased foe distrusted for his difference. It is these disgruntled vermin society pins their blame and sympathies. It is only the backwater lowlife strangers who are wholly independent. They are ignored by society and yet simultaneously a part of society. The collective may loathe the mentally impaired but it is them who by virtue of external isolation embrace their true being. Discrimination empowers the disgraced in their concession to never concede.
Disgraced adversaries are forced to look internally. They have no ally and thus rely on themselves for survival. It is a do or die moment. One that musters ever more strength than the persecutors. Resilience is unimaginable to the punisher. He is swinging his whip aimlessly laughing as the rope meets the naked spine yelping a scream in agony. The prisoner is biding his time for the moment to strike back. Screaming in pain, he holds himself in for the exact time to counter. This counterattack may be a passive silence refusing to yield, to give any information. It is the defensive conviction in the self. This hardens the individual and breaks the fantastical dream of an easy life. The struggling life is a token of comprehension. Those with troubling experience spend more time concentrating on their own purpose. If life is difficult why continue? The metaphysical queriers are endless as they spiral around the inquirer’s mind. Self confidence and deep conviction are the tools of overcoming such an obstacle ahead. It is only with one’s back against the wall, that external effort ceases its function. When the desired exterior is voided for an internal identification, more can be consumed. The self can be realised amongst its collectivist friends.
Underprivileged folk are the epitome of existential centrality. Being precedes belonging. While most people belong to various sectors of society others do not. The disgraced do not. While the mentally ill are the general victims of this group. The orphan is another example. He is alone in the world. No heritage nor family to call his own. Orphanages and foster parents attempt to compensate but the relational phase is conditional. The same can be said of the mentally ill or immigrant. Both are conditionally accepted. The immigrant may have a legacy in his former country but entering this new phase brings with it a new life. One unknown to him. He does not speak the language nor understand the culture. He is totally alone in this world. Technology has aided the immigrant in overcoming some of these hurdles through translation apps as well as telephoning family abroad. Unlike the orphan, the immigrant may have a legacy elsewhere. He can return to the ways of old. In our elevated awareness of bioethics we have become more empathetic to the disadvantaged. Caretakers are provided for mentally ill. Yet, they are placed in institutions away from society. The orphanage is the same way. Even if the institutional protections are unconditional the societal relation is not. It is dependent on acceptable otherness. Left alone in a dark world, they are more aware of their existence and the meaning of life.
Orphaned youth have the best effort to understand the suffering and look for a brighter future. The mentally ill do not possess the cognitive capacity of mainstream individuals. The orphan has an external problem not an internal one. The immigrant in a way is orphaned by his old country. In the past travelling to a new country was an arduous journey beginning fresh in an unknown society. Even now, the uncertainty is prevalent. The orphan suffers but can portray his allegiance to society. He can live in both worlds. As an orphan, he solely comprehends the struggle of losing parents. The woe and horror of a parentless life. On the other hand he is not confined to an institutional enclave forever. It is a temporary stage while he recuperates and grows old enough to care for himself. The orphanage cares so long as he is in need of parental aid. Once he matures he is to be out in the world. Yet even in adulthood he never forgets the toils of old. A struggling youth empowered him. He had time to introspect and grow. Time for himself not butchered by following others. Though the orphanage is not a single individual but a group of like-experiences. Even with a small society of the orphanage itself the relation to those who experienced to those who have not is vast. The world will look differently to he who has been sidelined and then autonomously enters than to he who was brought up in the thick of it.
Theoretical speculation is the first step down this road. Cinema may inspire the American dream but it is only a dream. A forlorn possibility. A model praising the ideal fantasy. The brief moment of cinematic bliss influences the viewer until he returns to his normal life aching for recognition. The cinematic ideals represent not a directed path but a desired value. Incorporate just a little of the archetypical deity. Beseech its novelty in its monistic pathway. The Bond type is a soloist. A fantasy at large but a skilled warrior. An individual walking his own path with his own principles. Such is the mode of the postmodern individual. Decrying the meta-narrative of the American dream. The self made man. Such an individual in most cases is still subject to society. He has yet to eclipse the societal rules governing his grossing rates. His independence has to be near isolated to ensure his hyper-productivity and sustainability. In the theoretical plane he ponders such changes periodically. In another life, he could walk the line differently but that was not in the cards for him. He plays by the rules in order to establish his prestige. The few eclipse and still tailor their ideas. Yet a habituated theoretician is near an inevitable pragmatist. This scare may haunt him from ever considering the possibility.
Initially self-isolated prioritises practical divergence due to a transparent indifference to societal norms. Embedded in his environmental codex is a disinterest. Sometimes even a callousness towards the societal order. A preacher of sorts boasting his ideological terror on the sweet citizenry. These defectors don’t loom in the shadows. They are out in the open, generally proud of their difference. Believing everyone else to be damned to the matrix. They have spent alone time pondering and have concluded with never before seen novelties. A revolutionary perception. They fear for the people’s delusions and wish to save them. For them it is less holding audiences and more living their way of life. A mode of doing whether than talking. Some believe it is their duty to educate the masses of this terrible cancer. A massive responsibility given the classical prophetic horrid experiences. The one-time insider is scene as delirious in his salvation attempt. He is not attempting to coerce the people but inspire them. A form of education diverting from conventional wisdom. Many ignore outright the possibility of wrongdoing. The dream cannot be a farce. So stooped in the system, the alternative is too embarrassing. Humble enough to recognise the faults of the past, the youthful spirit of the stranger can be accommodating even if uncomfortable. It requires a leap of faith.
Radical individualism of the ecstatic cinema is mere fiction. A fiction that is on the forefront of every man’s aspirations. Nevertheless, one bottled in despair. Each individual must find the nuances to break free of the shackles weighing him down in disbelief. The world is a not a stage of brave new world. It is not a real-life factory farming sequence. Whether or not categorically every person lives similarly. Most people will study in school advance to employment begin a family and then care for them until death. Such a procedure is the cycle of human history. Yet the details of that path can be differentiated. Applying more time to travel or to ensure a passive income produce more opportunities to solidify a special life. This is not a YouTube guru but a call for reflection. Instead of getting caught up in the routine of dull life, shift the mentality to personal hobbies to exert that independence. Periodic moments are moments of temporary escape but revert back to the machine. A shifted mentality alters an ideological taint. A newfound outlook eclipsing the mechanistic simplicity for realistic sophistication. The cinematic ideal is a lonesome tragedy. Yet in pursuit of some synthesis, a reviewed analysis and introspective art are critical.
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